Lorraine American Cemetery

Last weekend a few friends and I took a trip across the border to St. Avold, France to visit the Lorraine American Cemetery. American cemeteries were created all over Europe to honor the falled from World Wars I & II, and some of them are in pretty close proximity to where we live. As a history buff, grandaughter of a WWII veteran and wife of an American soldier, I feel like it's important to know my own history and to pay my respects to the men and women who gave their lives for the cause of freedom.

The cemetery holds the largest number of American dead in all of Europe. There are 10,489 graves which predominately belong to WWII soldiers. There are rows and rows of headstones, some of which belong to unknown soldiers. It's a sad thought, to know that each grave represents not only a fallen soldier, but a family. Each white cross stands for a mother, a father, a brother, a son that lost a soldier. A family that experienced a great loss, which could never truly be repaid. Two Medal of Honor winners are also interred at the cemetery.

There is a memorial chapel and two walls that hold the names of soldiers who are still missing in action. There is also a small overlook that allows you to see all the ceremony from about fifty feet up. It was a sobering experience but one that I was proud to have.

Marching on

What a crazy, busy few weeks. The good thing is that it makes the time go by fast, but the bad thing is that it wears us out! Two weeks ago Hayden woke up on Monday with "goo" coming out of his ear. Poor little guy! I called the clinic and got an appointment for that afternoon and he went to the baby sitters'. He played, ate and slept fine all day, but his ear was disgusting. When I took him in, the pediatrician told me that basically he had an ear infection and a backup of fluid, and to release the fluid, it had to burst through his eardrum. Yikes! She couldn't even SEE the eardrum because of all the fluid, so she gave us some drops to try before going to oral antibiotics. We hoped that five days of them would clear it up. It got better after two days, but then worse again, so I knew we'd have to go to different meds.

We saw her last week and she gave us an oral antibiotic for him. He's taking it for ten days, two times a day and it has been interesting. He took the first dose fine, but after that he resisted. I enlisted the help of my friend Megan, who is good at giving me tricks of the trade. To give him his medicine, I have to swaddle him in a towel to trap his arm and keep him still. Then I have to straddle him, hold his nose and push the medicine down the side of his cheek so he'll swallow it. It's not a fun process, but after a few days he started to know it was coming and thankfully stopped resisting it. He doesn't love it, but I love that after only a day his ear seemed better. We have another follow-up appointment next week and our fingers are crossed! The worst part is that I can't get his head wet, and he is a messy eater so we are improvising.

I had a check up in the midst of all this and discovered my own ear infection. No pain, just some muffled hearing that we've treated and hopefully gotten rid of. We also got some fun things done, like changing the oil in the car, a haircut for mom and game night with my co-workers from the bank. Life is busy, but good!

Hayden started full-time day care on the 15th and is having a great time! He eats well and plays well and has made several little friends. He gets to nap and snack and even brush his teeth, which is his very favorite thing in the world right now. The teachers eat him up and he has a great time. He also gets very excited to see me every day when I pick him up. The other day they were standing in the hall after their walk when I got there. He spotted me and his face broke out into this giant grin, and he TOOK OFF running towards me. He's such a big boy now!

Going to daycare means there's time for me to run errands, go to meetings and eventually go to the gym without feeling guilty. It's working out really well for us and I'm glad we finally got a spot!

Persistence or patience?

One of them certainly paid off! After three months of agonizing over a waiting list that didn't seem to move, nor could be explained to me, Hayden has a spot in daycare! He starts on March 15th at our Child Development Center on post. I'm so excited to have him in a structured, consistent setting where he can learn, explore, play with other kids and plus he loves the teachers in the room already. I'm really glad this finally all worked out. We really like Tylor, our babysitter, but I'm so excited to have him in a school setting. And it makes me feel better about going to the gym and getting my errands done. What's this? Time to myself? I don't know how I'll adjust, but I'm sure I'll find a way to manage!

Hayden's recent artwork

While I was in school in Mainz-Kastel for work, Hayden was creating fun art at the child development center in Wiesbaden! Take a look...

Hayden updates

I can't seem to blog fast enough to keep up with him! The most exciting thing right now is his new babysitter, Tylor. She lives in housing on post, and has a german shepard named Jax that Hayden adores. He went over there almost every day this week (except for my day off) and it seems to be working out really well. They go on lots of walks and luckily we've been having sunny weather, even if it's cold.

Hayden is also really enjoying his newfound skill...brushing his own teeth! I haven't gotten it on camera yet, but it really is the cutest thing. He puts his toothbrush in his mouth and moves his head back and forth to brush his teeth, instead of moving the brush. I love it! It really is my favorite part of the evening, when we brush our teeth together and then read books for bedtime. He's growing up too fast.

Because of his fully mobile status, he doesn't enjoy being strapped into carseats, strollers or high chairs much anymore. He needs to go, go, go! This makes daily activities and driving a little more challenging, but I really love all his energy and curiosity. He continues to be the happiest baby anyone has ever seen.

Jay bought Hayden a wagon and it finally arrived last week. It took me a little while to put it together, but Hayden really enjoys climbing in and out of it. We can't wait for warmer weather to come around so we can actually use it outside!

Weekend travelers

Last weekend we had a trip to Belgium planned. Life has been a little hectic so I had seriously contemplated cancelling it. But in the end, I decided it was just what we needed. Everyone had been so excited about getting out of town for a few days that I decided to shake the feeling of just wanting to stay home, and just GO!

The trip had gone back and forth on participants, times, even destinations! Our final plan as of last Friday was to leave at 430, with two car loads of people and head to Brussels. We would spend the night, explore Brussels on Saturday and take the train up to Bruges on Sunday for a little more exploring before heading back home that afternoon. Oh the best laid plans of mice and men...

We ended up leaving a little later than expected, right at 5pm. I really wanted to be to Wurzburg by 5 to avoid some of the traffic, but it couldn't be avoided all together. I couldn't begin to imagine the traffic we would sit in. After two hours, we were barely on the other side of Wurzburg...for my non-Germany friends, that's like sitting on I-40 from Greensboro to Winston and barely being to Hanes Mall in TWO hours. Yikes. After we got through a chunk of the traffic, we decided to stop and eat. Unfortunately all the OTHER people we had been in traffic with also had the same idea, which made for a very busy McDonald's. We got our food to go and ate in the car since there was not a seat in sight, much less enough for the 8 of us.

We got back on the road and shortly ran into MORE traffic. I could not believe our luck. We played games in the car and Hayden napped a bit here and there but it was definitely not what we had expected. Here in Germany when we travel, we have Esso fuel cards so we don't pay German prices for gas. To give you an idea of the difference...I pay about 80 cents a liter on post, and there are 3.75 liters to a gallon (roughly). So right now on post I'm paying about $3 per gallon for gas. Off post, Germans pay 1.35 euro per liter, which is about $1.75. You do the math, but it's more than double with the exchange rate. The Esso fuel cards can only be used at Esso stations, and we had full understanding of the process. However. We did not take into account that Esso stations would be closed at 1130 pm when we finally stopped for gas. We tried three different Esso stations, only to be disappointed at every turn. We ended up stopping at an Aral station, which does NOT accept the Esso fuel card (think Exxon vs. BP). So we paid 30 euro (about $45) for a half a tank of gas. Yikes.

We continued our drive through the Netherlands and into Belgium. It didn't take us too long to get into Brussels, and we had the hotel address punched into our Navigons. However, Navigon takes you the "shortest" route, which is not necessarily the fastest. So we were driving through some pretty scary neighborhoods at 130 in the morning. Add that to the fact that Belgium has more traffic fatalities than any of its neighbors (other than France) and you have a recipe for absolute terror. I forget how to be scared when Jay is here because I always know we're safe. But with five women and three kids, it's a different kind of fear. We located our hotel and knew there wouldn't be parking so we set out to find spots. We encountered our first Belgian traffic circle, which is two lanes wide but not marked. And in some traffic circles, cars coming IN have the right away, as opposed to the rest of the world where those already in the circle have the right away. Several near-accidents were avoided, and there was a lot of honking. Who expected there to be so much traffic at this time of night?

We found two spots finally, right out in front of our hotel. But we missed them so we took a drive around the block to get back to them. Imagine our surprise when, in the middle of a well-light hotel zone, we were greeted by no less than 35 prostitutes in two blocks! I could not get off that street fast enough, which was no easy feat in the narrow alleyway in a Ford Fusion. We got back to our parking spots, and I hopped out to check in while Erica parallel-parked my car with Mandie and Hayden inside. Our hotel was padlocked from the inside, presumably thanks to the working girls around the corner. Once we were finally checked in, we took turns going back out to the cars so the kids didn't have to be outside. I scrambled to get our bags as quickly as possible so I could get inside. You can imagine why, at 2am, I thought this trip would be a disaster.

Luckily Saturday came along and changed my mind! It rained briefly in the early morning, but cleared up just as we headed out to explore. It was still chilly and windy, so Hayden was armed with his snowsuit and winter hat. What an amazing city Brussels turned out to be! I love to visit new cities to learn about the culture and the people. We walked from our hotel to the city center at the Grand Place, which is a square surrounded by beautiful, old buildings. A couple had just gotten married in the church, vendors were setting up stands with fruit and art and wine, and it reminded me of why I love living in Europe.

We visited "Manneken Pis", a world-renowned statue of a little boy peeing into a fountain. This is seriously a national treasure, and one that bears over 700 outfits! It is a great tradition to change his outfit, and this particular weekend that task belonged to a group of college students. It was so much fun to be there to see it, once we finally found it! We also sought out his "little sister", which is less widely known and much younger statue. There's a dog too, but we weren't that ambitious. We got waffles, which were totally worth the hype. We picked up chocolate and lace and souvenirs, and enjoyed the sunshine in the city.

This was one of those trips without much clear direction or itinerary, and we had a blast just exploring and eating. We had a relaxing lunch at an adorable restaurant, and spent the evening just hanging out. On Sunday, we decided to forego the Bruges plan since the weather was forecasted to be ugle, and instead headed to Cologne. We got lost a few times, but finally found ourselves at the Hard Rock Cafe for lunch. We enjoyed great food and music before heading back our way and finally ending up at home around 9pm. Not bad for our first trip to Belgium, and considering all the bumps in the road! It took us a bit to get home, this time due to the 40mph winds on the road, but we arrived safely and just in time for bed!

Four years

I'm behind on posting (shocking, I know) but for now I just wanted to wish my husband a Happy Anniversary! Four years ago today, we were in a gazebo in Charleston, SC saying our vows on a beautiful but windy day. I could have never imagined this life for us four years later, and I hope the next four years keep us guessing just as much!